Why Mark Driscoll is my favourite preacher at the moment

OK, so we should love the word and the preacher is just a vessel for God to say what He wants to and all glory should go to God, but having said that I still have favourite preachers and writers who I hear God through that much clearer than others. Other favourite preacher/writers are Joseph Prince, Charlotte Scanlon-Gamble, Jerry Bridges, C. S. Lewis, Joyce Meyer, John Bevere, Lisa Bevere.

The first thing of Mark's that I heard was his Q&A session from 6 Jan where he answered questions about sex. Not easy questions either! Things like is masterbation an appropriate birth control method and is abortion after falling pregnant because of a rape ok. What I loved was that he dealt with it all with good humour, was not condemning but was really clear about the truth. His responses were clearly educated and his use of scripture was appropriate. He did not proof-text anything out of context. Subsequently, I watched his full sermon on the subject of birth control. I was very impressed by the depth of the research he had clearly done, and the grace-filled approach he took. Where there were ethical questions that were uncertain he said so and did not dogmatically impose a viewpoint. Where the ethical implications were clear but potentially unpopular he was true to scripture.

Last night I watched his sermon from 13 Jan on humour. It is part of Mars Hill's current "Religion saves + nine other misconceptions" series where he is dealing with questions that the congregation have raised (ala the way 1 Corinthians is a response to the questions the Corinthians asked Paul.) The question was whether humour is appropriate, is there humour in the bible, and is it ok to make fun of people. He started by doing a run through of some of the comedic high-points of the bible. A couple of my favourites are Aaron's response when asked by Moses about the golden calf, "What?? I just threw the gold in the fire, and the idol jumped out by itself!!!" and Paul's instruction to the Galatians that if they like circumcision so much why not go the whole way and emasculate themselves!!

I'm really excited about the rest of this sermon series. They are covering some real doozies. Next week is predestination, and why does God destine some people for glory and others for wrath. Definitely worth checking out, one thing to note however is that he does tend to talk for a while, so it's wise to allow an hour to watch the sermons:

http://www.marshillchurch.org/sermonseries/religionsaves

God bless,
Bec

P.S. This is a late addition to this post (15 May 2008). I've noticed that I get a HEAP of hits on this particular blog post. My views on Mark Driscoll's teaching have changed somewhat from when I first posted this so I feel bound to add this comment. I still find his preaching engaging and well studied, but I have found after listening to more of his stuff that his position on gender roles is unbiblical. Everyone has weak points in their theology-- the gender stuff is Mark's. If you take that caveat, then there is much to learn and enjoy in his preaching, just don't be surprised when for instance his series on Ruth turns into a lesson in gender roles.